Andersonville, Volume 1

essee-became greater and greater. The base of supplies was at Camp Nelson, near Lexington, Ky., one hundred and eighty miles from the Gap, and all that the Army used had t

ia was still in the hands of the Rebels; its stock of products was as yet almost exempt from military contributions. Consequently a raid was projected to reduce the Valley to our possession,

o attend the excursion. As he held the honorable, but not very lucrative position of "high, private" in Company L, of the Battalion, and the invitation came from his Captain, he did not feel at liberty to decline. He went,

ers, and I say unto one, Go; and he goeth; and to another, Com

man who nowadays would take

lant steeds, came into line "as companies" with the automatic listlessness of the old soldiers, "counted off by fours" in that queer gamut-running style that makes a company

One. Two. Three. Four

the melancholy mist that soaked through the very fiber of man and horse, and reduced the

. A cavalryman soon recognizes as the least astonishing thing in his existence the signal to "Fall in!"

he mountains-down to where the "Virginia road" turned off sharply to the left and entered Powell's Valley. The mist had become a chill, dreary rain, through, which we plodded silently, until night closed in around us some ten miles from the Gap. As we halted to go into camp, an indignant Virginian resented the

rubbed, and we laid down with feet t

t and turned so cold that everything was frozen stiff. This was better than the rain,

urs right!" again, and the 300 of us resumed our

p, had learned of our starting up the Valley to drive them out, and they showed that warm reciprocity characteristic of the Southern soldier, by mounting and starting down the Valley to d

tnumbered us, I would be following the universal precedent. No soldier-h

way to give us battle. It was here that most of the members of the Regiment lived. Every ma

ry. The old men gathered to give parting counsel and encouragement to their sons and

n hill-sides. It is yet bitterly cold, and men and horses draw themselves together, as if to expose

top of the hill, and the rest of us are stru

n attention, and the boys instinctively range themselves into fours-the cavalry unit of action. The Major, who is riding about the m

URS LEFT INTO

ke. As the fours come into line on a trot, we see every man draw his sa

he fours sweep around into line, the sabers and revolvers come out

o line just as we raise the hill, and as my four comes around, I catch a hurried glimpse through a rift in the smoke of a line of butternut and gray clad men a hundred yards or so away. Their guns are at th

order and our men yelling in pursuit. This is the portion of the line which Companies I and K struck. Here and there are men in butternut clothing, prone on the frozen ground, wounded and dy

lank fellow in the next four to me-who goes by the nickname of "'Leven Yards"-aims his carbine at him, and, without checking his horse's pace, fires. The heavy Sharpe's bullet tears

of us. We all fire at him on the impulse of the moment. He falls from his horse with a bullet through his back. Company M, which has remained in column as a reserve, is now thundering up close behind at a gallop. Its seventy-five pow

it of Chestnut Ridge, fif

ive urging his well-nigh spent horse down the slope of the hill toward town

unes which were to afflict the upright man of Uz is a type of all the cowards who, before or since th

yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of

ginian shouted to h

to pieces; I'm the o

the utmost speed of their nearly exhausted horses. As they came on down the hill as almost equally disorganized crowd of pursuers appeared on the summit, yell

he road branched in several directions, the pursued scattered

at many horses, and a considerable quantity of small arms. How many of the enemy had been killed and wounded could not be told, a

und the Rebel line nearly formed and ready for action. A moment's hesitation might have been fatal to us. At his command Company I went into line with the thought-like celerity of trained cavalry, and instantly dashed through the right of the Rebel

ell's Valley was ope